Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is a commercially mass-produced important polymer which is colorless and which has a high light transmittance, excellent chemical resistance and excellent weather corrosion resistance. PMMA is widely used as a substitute for glass in optical device applications. However, the glass transition temperature of PMMA is relatively low, e.g., about 100° C. and has a moisture absorption property. These properties limit the utility of PMMA for optical electronic applications.
In order to increase the glass transition temperature (Tg) of PMMA, there have been investigated the incorporation of rigid or bulky monomers through copolymerization as described in: Y. Tan, G. Ekenstein, Eur. Polym. J. 1994, 30, 1363; A. Mishra, T. Sinha, V. Choudhary, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 1998, 68, 527; and S. Dong, Q. Wang, Y. Wei, Z. Zhang, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 1999, 72, 1335, and the incorporation of monomers having groups that can form a hydrogen-bonding interaction with the carbonyl group of PMMA as described in: E. M. Pearce, T. K. Kwei, B. Y. Min, J. Macromol. Sci. Chem. 1984, 21, 1181; S. Kuo, F. Chang, Macromolecules 2001, 34, 7737; and S. Kuo, H. Kao, F. Chang, Polymer 2003, 44, 6873. The moisture absorption of PMMA has been also reported to decrease by copolymerization of methyl methacrylate with bulky cyclic hydrocarbon substituted methyl acrylates.
However, these modifications with bulky groups tend to decrease the transparency of PMMA due to light absorption of the co-monomer added.
For PMMA in the visible region, intrinsic light transmittance losses are dominated by overtone stretches of C—H stretching vibration and by a combination of overtone stretches and deformation vibration. When heavier atoms such as deuterium and fluorine replace the hydrogen atom of C—H bond, the vibration absorption energy increases, and the absorption band is thereby minimized in a region ranging from the visible region to the near-infrared region.
Consequentially, Bontevin and coworkers have prepared several fluorine substituted acrylate monomers and have reported that their polymers are highly transparent organic materials (B. Bontevin, A. Rousseau, D. Bosc, J. Polym. Sci. Pol. Chem. 1992, 30, 1279). Among these fluorine-substituted acrylate monomers, pentafluorophenyl methacylate (PFPA) and its polymer were reported in terms of refractive indexes thereof. Further, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of poly(PFPA) was reported to be 125° C., which is about 20° C. higher than that of PMMA.